Highly stretchable transparent flexible films are wound in rolls on hollow, heavy, paste board cores having an internal diameter of three inches. It is known to brake the rolls as the material is stripped therefrom for wrapping palletized articles in order that the material will stretch, not only to tightly encapsulate the article but also to increase the useful linear footage of the material which can stretch about three times its original length without tearing.
Braking the stripping speed has involved problems. For example, as the material is stripped from the roll, the roll turns increasingly faster requiring constant adjustment of the braking force and the only practical way to do this is by the use of hand pressure on spindle ends which project beyond the ends of the rolls. Because the interior diameter of a core is too large for spindles of a size capable of being gripped by the hands, an attempt has been made to provide reduced diameter spindles by the use of a device which resembles to a certain extent an old fashioned potato masher. With this device, the head is jambed into the core, which requires considerable effort, and an integral handle extends axially outwardly of the core to be grasped by the bare hands of the operator who applies hand pressure to the spindle to control the speed and hence the degree of stretch of the film material as it is stripped from the roll. Even with gloves on, this is extemely hard on the hands.
Another solution has been to rewind the material, without stretching it, from the original three inch core onto a unitary, reduced diameter spindle whose ends extend on either side beyond the roll. The diameter of the spindle is selected to receive there-over a flexible enlongated, tapered cup-shaped handle elements which the operator grips in his hands and squeezes and/or moves axially inwardly as necessary to brake the spindle and hence the speed with which the material is stripped from the rolls. Obviously the rewinding step is tedious and expensive and the use of the handle grips is very fatiguing when it is considered that not only must they be squeezed but they must also at all times have an inward axial force exerted thereon.